18th Century Birds

Last week I spent every day at the computer getting all the bookkeeping finalized so that it could be sent to the accountant for her reports. Although I love bookkeeping and the wonderful feeling it gives when everything falls into place and balances (a bit like stitching a Mandela), at this time of year it is always great to know it's done (and correct of course). My goal was to have it sent out by the end of last week and lo and behold at 5:30 pm Friday my mission was accomplished.

In order to do some relaxing stitching during the evenings I picked up a WIP that I was stitching in one color.

Last year when I was looking through some of my old cross stitch magazines I came across this pattern. I can't remember that it caught my eye as something special in 1983, yet now I found I wanted to stitch it. The magazine does not give a name for the pattern nor does it mention the name of the designer.

Rather than stitch it in the colors suggested I decided to use just one color and here is the result.

18th Century Birds (sounds appropriate)
from the April 1983 issue of 'Handwerken met Steek'
stitched 1/2 on 32 ct 18th Century Red linen
with DMC 3865

The finished piece is approximtely 5 1/2 x 6 inches (13 1/2 x 14 1/2 cm) and rather than make it into a book cover as suggested in 'Steek' I'm looking for a pretty box so I can use it to decorate the lid.

Today the rest of my floss arrived for my 01/01/09 start. Recently I checked the re-stitched area and believe it or not - I did is correctly. Next weekend I'll put the floss onto the bobbins and then pull everything I need so that it's all ready to work on.

In the meantime I could pull out another WIP but first I have a small project I really want to stitch. It is a San-Man original - 'Grin & Share It'. Absolutely adorable and a quick stitch.